Aid workers in Syria who have had their citizenship revoked by the UK Government could now be targets of British and American drone strikes.
Whilst they all deny fighting there, many aid workers are now launching legal appeals to have their citizenship restored.
The Middle East Eye has learnt of two cases where aid workers based in Idlib city have been stripped of their citizenship on the grounds that they “present a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom,” according to letters sent to their families.
Both have said that they are only involved in humanitarian work and have never fought in Syria with any rebel groups.
They are now appealing against the decision but that process could potentially take years.
Until then, they are unable to legally leave Syria because their British passports have been cancelled and neither possesses travel documentation from any other country.
The British government’s use of stripping citizenship has led to criticisms in the past because of two prominent cases of Bilal al-Berjawi and Mohamed Sakr, two former British citizens who were killed via drone strikes in Somalia in 2012 and 2014 after both had been revoked of citizenship.
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In another case, Mahdi Hashi, a former British citizen who had been held by the US in Djibouti, was handed over to the US to face trial on terrorism charges for which he was jailed for nine years last year.
All three were accused of links to Somalia’s Al-Shabaab group, which is a listed terrorist organisation in the UK.
